Dream Almost as Abbott Had Imagined, 6-3

Sometimes, reality does catch up with fantasy, and a young Detroit Tigers fan born without a right hand can actually grow up and pitch a winning game in Tiger Stadium. For years, Jim Abbott imagined it, and Saturday he lived it, delivering a 6-3 Angel victory before family and friends on the hallowed grounds at Michigan and Trumbull.

Even at that, Abbott discovered, the real thing seldom approaches the bold colors and strokes of the mind’s masterpiece. This was the game Abbott had played over and over, bouncing a baseball against his house in Flint, Mich., while he would play with the likes of Trammell and Gibson and Whitaker.

But when it came time to face the real Tigers, on the real slope of the Tiger Stadium mound, the names confronting Abbott were strange ones. Rich Schu. Mike Brumley. Al Pedrique. Ken Williams. Tracy Jones.

“To be honest,” Abbott had to admit, “that lineup didn’t look like the old Tiger lineup.”

The old Tigers used to batter opposing pitching. These Tigers were just battered. The first hitter Abbott faced was Gary Pettis. The first hitter he struck out was Williams.

This hadn’t been a part of Abbott’s mind game. Nor was the first-inning home run he allowed to Jones, the .186 hitter acquired from the San Francisco Giants Friday, or the second-inning home run he allowed to Gary Ward, the New York Yankees reject acquired on waivers last month.

Suddenly, Abbott was trailing, 2-0, to a bunch of guys he’d barely heard of.

The wakeup call had effectively been administered.

“This was certainly a longtime dream for me,” Abbott said. “I grew up here, and this is my idea of what major league baseball is all about.

“But after the first couple innings, I was quickly reminded it’s a game--and you better concentrate on pitching your game.”

Over the next five innings, Abbott surrendered five more hits--totaling nine for the day--but none of them more damaging than a single. After Ward’s home run into the second deck in right field, Abbott held Detroit scoreless until the seventh, when Pettis walked, stole second and came home on a single by Jones.

By then, however, Abbott was pitching with a lead. The Angels scored three times in the third inning, once in the fourth and twice in the eighth, which meant Abbott would leave the game with a 6-3 advantage.

The Angel bullpen provided some nervous times after that, with three relievers required to complete the eighth inning and the third one, Bob McClure, having to face the tying run in theninth.

But they patched together enough outs to get the job done and preserve Abbott’s sixth victory in 10 decisions.

This enthralled Abbott’s personal booster group of 58 relatives and friends, all in attendance courtesy of the Angel pass list. Some of them couldn’t wait to congratulate Abbott, including his grandfather, Frank, who tried to talk his way into the Angel clubhouse moments after the final out.

The security guard by the door wouldn’t budge, however, despite the man’s obvious credentials--a baseball cap perched on his head that read Abbott’s Grandpa .

“This is the first time my family has seen me win,” said Abbott, alluding to his professional career. “It’s the first time a lot of people have seen me win. For a long time, my mom thought she was a jinx. Whenever she’d watch me pitch in college, it seemed like I’d always lose.”

It was an emotional day, and for that reason, Abbott said he was glad to be able to play catch with Lance Parrish, another Tiger hero of yesteryear who knows the feeling of coming home.

“Lance kind of stressed for me to just pitch my game,” Abbott said. “He kept talking to me about the issue at hand.”

Said Parrish: “I just tried to have him go at it like any other day, to not let the outside influences get in his way. I didn’t want him to get too excited and overthrow the ball.”

With the exception of the pitches to Jones and Ward, Parrish and Abbott succeeded.

“He just got two balls up,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “A high changeup to Jones, a high fastball to Ward. Those were the only two bad pitches he threw.”

Then, Abbott waited for the Angel offense to get to Tiger starter Doyle Alexander (4-7), which didn’t take long.

Claudell Washington began a three-run third inning with a mammoth home run that struck the facade of the third deck in right field. Wally Joyner and Chili Davis followed with run-scoring singles, giving Abbott a 3-2 advantage.

Johnny Ray had a run-scoring triple in the fourth inning and an RBI single in the eighth inning, and Jack Howell added an eighth-inning home run, his sixth homer of the season and his second in as many days.

With such support, Abbott was able to realize a dream, even if a few of the details were missing and the Tiger Stadium walls were more reachable than he ever imagined.

“It’s nice to do something you always wanted to do,” Abbott said. “I always wanted to throw here, and I found out what it was like.”

The final verdict?

“I don’t think I want to throw here again,” he said, grinning.

Angel Notes

In a less-heralded homecoming, former Tiger pitcher Dan Petry made his first appearance as an Angel in Tiger Stadium when a line drive by Keith Moreland cut short Greg Minton’s eighth-inning relief stint. It was also a comeback of sorts for Minton, who strained a muscle in his right rib cage while pulling up his pants between games of a doubleheader in Texas Wednesday night. Minton faced one batter, Moreland, who hit a liner back up the middle that struck Minton in the right shin. Minton was left with a bad bruise--and a quick exit from the game. “Because of what he had (with the rib cage), in conjuntion with the shinburger, I didn’t want him risking an overload,” said Angel Manager Doug Rader, who immediately summoned Petry from the bullpen. And Minton, much to his dismay, was deprived of a potential save. “I didn’t even get a chance to argue,” Minton said. “(Rader) came out to the mound and says, ‘Because of your ribs, you’re outta here.’ I go, ‘Wait a second, I think I can still pitch.’ And he says, ‘You’re outta here.’ That was that. There was an ‘S’ involved, but I didn’t get the chance to get it.” Instead, the save went to Bob McClure, who entered the game after Petry struck out Gary Ward and walked Mike Heath.

Claudell Washington’s third-inning home run bouced off the facade of the third deck, nearly landing on the roof. “A click higher and it would’ve gone out,” Rader said. “I’m just glad it didn’t.” Why not? “Because the umpire might’ve called it foul,” Rader replied. “If it goes over the roof, there’s always a chance of him

thinking the ball’s hooking foul. But if it’s stuck in the facade, it’s kind of hard for him to miss.”

Detroit’s bulging injury list forced Manager Sparky Anderson to reshuffle his pitching rotation so that David Palmer (0-1) will start today in place of Paul Gibson. With late-inning reliever Guillermo Hernandez ailing due to a sore left arm, Anderson says he needs Gibson to provide depth in the bullpen.